Unless you’ve been avoiding civilisation for the last decade, you will be very much aware that the two juggernauts of weekend viewing have returned to our small, pitiful TV screens. No not Harry Hills TV Burp and Spooks but the mighty X Factor and its bumbling rival Strictly Come Dancing. As always both shows have an eclectic mix of characters, desperate to receive maximum exposure and unnecessary media attention. The odder you are the more cameras they seem to point at you. Of course TV of this calibre wouldn’t be complete without a handful of camp, glittery queers mincing around the stage like they are dancing on top of the speakers at GAY. But are they being represented properly by the broadcasters? Or are they simply put on the show for a bit of light comic relief? Harking back to the days when gay folk were only required for sitcoms to blow the camp-o-meter off the scale.
This year the X Factor has singled out Johnny Robinson as its homosexual ‘jester of the court’. While Strictly Come Dancing has opted for Russell ‘camp as tits’ Grant. No not the one married to Katy Perry, the tubby astrologer from TVam.
Johnny Robinson wowed the judges when he took to the stage during the auditions. As the show progressed we have seen Johnny go from strength to strength vocally. Unfortunately after finally making it onto the live shows, he was forced to play up to his effeminate nature. Singing Cher ‘Believe’ in a long foil jacket and sunglasses, looking more like karaoke on the star ship Enterprise than a talent competition.
Russell Grant had the audience of strictly on their nimble little feet as he merrily attempted a salsa to Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’. The joke wasn’t lost on the audience either, applauding with delight at the BBC’s ingenious song choice for Grant. Not content with having a fat, camp, gay man jig badly to ‘dancing queen’, he was also thrown on stage with a big pink feather bower. It was like a rainbow had vomited all over the stage and the chunks of carrot had started to dance.
Is all this camp farcical behaviour needed? I would have found it much more creative to have both contestants do something that doesn’t solely rely on their camp nature. It’s marginally insulting for the audience
to make such crass and obvious jokes on their sexuality, how stupid do they think we are? I guess the fact that we watch these shows in the first place answers that question.
Craig Ford